September 8 – National Day in Andorra

Posted
on September 8, 2016

Our
Lady of Meritxell is a statue of the patron saint of Andorra.
According to legend, people found the statue under a blooming rosebush,
long, long ago. They took the statue to the nearest church, the legend goes on –
but the next morning it was found again under the bush! So the people
called it a miracle and built a new chapel out there in the spot
where the statue had been found.

Unfortunately,
the original chapel burned down – and the statue with it! So
replicas of the chapel and of the statue were carefully created.

The
Saint Day for Our Lady of Meritxell serves as the National Day for
Andorra.

For
those of you asking where in the world Andorra is:

It's
squished in between Spain and France, in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Andorra
is a tiny country, a principality. But even though
Andorra is smaller than the cities of Chicago or Los Angeles, it is
only the sixth smallest nation in Europe! (Let's face it, Europe has
several principalities and other sorts of “micro-states.”)

It's
also a really old country. The principality was formed in 1278 –
more than 700 years ago! Some nations that are younger than Andorra
include the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, the United States,
Spain, Australia, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Monaco...well—most of the
countries that exist today are younger than Andorra! (Depending on
your definition of “country,” San Marino, Japan, China, France,
Iran, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Thailand, Portugal, and Mongolia
could claim to be older than Andorra.)

What
do you do when you have a teensy, old nation tucked away high in the
mountains? If you are Andorran, you probably speak Catalan, you quite
possibly provide tourism services, maybe in ski resorts or duty-free
shops, and you likely live a long, healthy life.* (See NOTEs below.)

Here
are some things that tourists can enjoy in Andorra – along with ten
MILLION other visitors every year:

Hiking

Hot
Springs and Spas

Skiing

Duty-free
shopping

* NOTE: Although Spanish, Portuguese, and French are commonly spoken in
Andorra, Catalan is the nation's official language.

Tourism
is by far the largest part of Andorra's economy, accounting for
about 80% of its Gross Domestic Product.

And Andorrans have
the highest life expectancy in the world, 81 years.

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